I love this time of year. Cool crisp mornings, the color of the autumn leaves in the sunshine, pumpkins, sitting by the fire, football , hayrides, hot chocolate, the smell of cinnamon, and nutmeg.

With this weather it just made me want to make something that would make the kitchen smell like fall.

So that is the reason for the sweet potato bread. At least one of the reasons, the other being that I have an abundance of sweet potatoes from the CSA that I have not used. I pulled out half of them for the bread and will use the rest for a fall root roast.

One year for Christmas a student brought me this bread all wrapped up real pretty for a gift. Now for those of you that aren’t teachers you might not understand this. Teachers have to be real careful when it comes to eating food that students bring you from home. You never know. You could have made Suzie Q real mad cause you called her mama for talking back to you or it just wasn’t fair that you sent her to the office because she was half dressed. Needless to say I am wary of eating anything that I don’t see made right in front of me. This little cute blonde I trusted her. No really I knew her mama real well. So here is the best sweet potato bread that has ever passed your lips. I promise you. Eat hot right out of the oven or freeze and eat later. Whatever you choose you are going to love it!

Coming from the south I have grown up eating sweet potatoes. Not sweet potato souffle. I hate that. Just plain sweet potatoes with butter and salt. There is nothing better. My grandparents grew these in their garden. As a small child I watched my mother with her apron on putting sweet potatoes in a brown paper bag and pushing them in the oven. I would help her peel them when they came out. It was almost like peeling a banana. I could not help myself from putting hot pieces in my mouth as we took the peelings off. They were so good.

You can do the same. Create some childhood memories with your family. Let them help you make this bread and maybe years from now they will be writing about how good it made them feel to be in the kitchen with you.

Sweet Potatoes ready to go in the oven.

Put in a paper bag on a baking sheet.

You have to bake them in a brown bag. Trust me. It helps to make the sugars caramelize. The taste is unbelievable. Bake at 400 degrees F. Bake until nice and soft for about 1 hr. and 20 minutes. It will make your house smell so good.

Here they are right out of the oven. Soft skins and ready to peel.

Sweet potatoes peeled and ready to whip.

Whip hot potatoes with mixer. Do not add a thing. At this point you can refrigerate until you are ready to make the bread. Bring to room temperature or heat in the microwave for a few minutes.

So is this what they mean by “great minds”? I just baked a sweet potato cake with pecans and cranberries this morning! I’m probably not going to post on it until the holidays, but I’ll be sure to link to this post when I do. I love this cake!